A Class Divided-A PBS FilmIn this documentary, Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher divided her class in two groups based on eye color; one group had blue eyes and the other had brown eyes. On the first day of the experiment, Elliott told the children who had blue eyes that they were superior to the children with brown eyes; that they were better, kinder and smarter. Throughout the day, he praised and encouraged them and gave them various privileges, such as being first in line and having more time for recess. Brown-eyed children were forced to wear collars, as a means of identifying them as the inferior group, and were criticized and told that they had to be separated from the blue-eyed group at recess. On the second day the superiority was reversed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Illusory correlation refers to when people see a relationship between two variables, even when there is none. This happened a lot in this documentary. On the first day, when the blue-eyed group was superior to the brown-eyed group, both Elliott and the students created illusory correlations between the brown-eyed people and several variables. For example, Elliott linked being slow, referring to being ready to start class, and having brown eyes. Many of these correlations were made between people with blue eyes when they were smaller. The top group, the brown-eyed group, established a correlation between having blue eyes and being forgetful, violent, and wasteful. Social identity theory is a concept based on the assumption that people strive to improve their self-image by trying to increase their self-esteem based on personal or social identities. This theory proved true during the experiment. An example of social identity theory is when the children were having recess; one of the blue-eyed boys in the group tried to improve his self-esteem by calling one of his classmates an offensive name; "brown eyes." Stereotype threat is the effect of stereotypes on an individual's performance. The experiment showed the different effects that stereotypes had on children's performance depending on the status of their group; whether they were superior or inferior. In an exercise with phonics cards we can see the effect that stereotypes have on children's performance. On the first day, the brown-eyed people took 5 1/2 minutes to flip through the cards. On the second day, however, they managed to finish the same cards in a fraction of the time, it only took 2 and a half minutes. This improvement is based solely on changing the stereotype. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay In-group and out-group favoritism involves an “us versus them” mentality that is clearly displayed throughout the experiment. Elliott, for example, showed group favoritism when she chose children with blue eyes as the superior group, simply because she herself had blue eyes. Whichever group was superior exhibited these two terms. Whichever group was superior, they perceived their own group as good and intelligent while they thought the outgroup was bad and unintelligent.